Love Story of a Transsexual couple

This is the love story of a very unusual couple I met. They are a transsexual couple where Christie (21) is a female transformed into a male, and Soumya (25) is a male transformed into a female. The two are into a relationship where Christie plays the role of a husband and Soumya that of a wife.

Christie was born as a girl, and Sowmya was born as a boy. But the two have changed their sexes, and Christie is a boy now, while Sowmya is a girl. They have both known each other for four years and have been into a relationship for a year.

Christie’s story

Though Christie had the physical characteristics of a girl, he always felt that he was a boy and had feelings towards other girls. “In school plays I would always play the role of a man and also dressed like a boy. Then, in ninth standard, I wrote a love letter to another girl. She complained to the principal and I was suspended for three months. After that when I came back to school, I was ridiculed by other students and teachers. They would call me names, and so I gave up my studies,” he said.

Even at home, Christie was reprimanded by his parents for behaving like a boy. When he was 18, Christie left home. “I slept on footpaths and in bus stands. After a week, in Shivajinagar bus stand other people who are like me saw me and recognized me as one like them, and brought me to Sangama, a NGO working for the sexual minorities. I got a job at the NGO and have been working there since then,” he said. Christie’s family has accepted him now as a boy, and talk to him now.

Sowmya’s story

Sowmya felt that she had to change her sex and become a girl, when she was in I year B Com. “Right from childhood, I was feminine. I felt like a girl and dressed like one when I was alone. When I sang, I sounded like a girl, and even my gait was like that of a girl. I didn’t do any of this on purpose. It just came naturally,” she said. Her father and brother beat her and scolded her asking her to behave like a boy. When she joined college, she came in contact with others like her and left her house. “I initially did sex work, but left it when I joined Sangama. I now work with another group working for sexual minorities called Samara,” she said.

Their love

At Sangama, Christie saw Sowmya and fell for her. But he had to woo Sowmya for three years before she accepted his proposal. “I once filled a note book with Sowmya’s name. It took me one and a half months to fill the book with her name. I sent it by post to her. I kept calling her and sending love letters to her, but she didn’t give in,” he said. Christie didn’t give up and one day told her to come to office in a maroon saree. “I waited to see her in the saree, but she turned up in a chudidar. I was disappointed. The next day she called me to a pub, and when I went there, she was waiting for me in the maroon saree. Here, she accepted my proposal,” he said.

Sowmya says that the delay in accepting the proposal was because she wanted to get into a relationship, only after she was sure that the commitment was for life. “I am sure, Christie and I will live together throughout our lives,” she said.

Christie was to get married, but Sowmya doesn’t think marriage is necessary. “We both know that he will live together forever, and that is enough. What is the need to hold a ceremony and call it marriage?” she asks.

The fights

The couple has fights too. “Christie is very possessive and does not like even if I talk a bit too much to any one. He gets angry because of this and we fight,” she said. Sowmya gets angry when Christie tells lies or wastes money. “Sowmya doesn’t talk to me for three-four days when she is angry. I then get flowers or sweets for her, and she smiles. Her favourite is kaju burfi,” he said. The couple wants to adopt a child and make the family complete.

Sex change operation

Sowmya has undergone a sex change operation, but Christie has not. “A sex change operation for a female to convert into a male is very expensive and may cost around Rs 40 lakh. So I am unable to do it. Sowmya spent just Rs 1 lakh for changing herself from a male to female,” he said.